CPEC: A Double-Edged Sword For Balochistan

Gwadar, the port city situated on the shore of Arabian Sea in Southwest Balochistan, with its recently recognized geopolitical significance has been in spotlight. Yet, it is the most violent and Insurgency-ridden area in the region. Different circles focused on Gwadar have distinct perspectives and aspirations from this much-touted, going-to-be center of economic activity in the region. In Pakistani national discourse it is portrayed as a gateway to a new era of Chinese investments and development. Since the establishment of the 70 billion USD China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in 2015, it has been anticipated to embark the region on a new spree of prosperity and inflow of Chinese investments which, as they put it, would stimulate economic development and create jobs in the region. Despite all these imaginary, somewhat ill-founded, exclamations, the reality up until now has been quite the opposite for the local people. Gwadar has virtually been transformed into a garrison city due to volatile security situation in the area. It is emblematic of a medieval port city fortified with ramparts. The city is dotted with security checkpoints. Intera-city mobility has become extremely restricted, local people cannot move within the city without being halted every now and then to establish their identity. Disenchanted local fishermen, accompanied by overwhelmingly concerned local people, a couple of months ago came out in thousands and protested against their livelihoods being snatched away from them.

Moreover, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) proposes to connect China's Xinjiang Province with Pakistan's Gwadar via a network of motorways and railways. Gwadar Port is planned to connect China's belt and road programme with its maritime silk road as part of CPEC. While this much-acclaimed Gwadar project is regarded as a jewel in China's growing global economic crown, for cash-starved Pakistan it serves as a source of subsidised loans from Chinese banking giants.

There is a suffocating information blockage on CPEC related projects in the country. Only discourse on CPEC that take place uncensored are the drawing room discussions. No open-ended debate on the subject is permissible. Even the civilian politicians are hardly allowed to know much about CPEC related-projects. Agreements signed with Chinese authorities seem to be the top official secrets of Pakistani state these days.

At the time of its inauguration, CPEC was highly adulated by both Chinese and Pakistani authorities to be the industrial lynchpin that would uplift the economic situation of Balochistan and usher in an era of prosperity and peace for the local Baloch people. By far nothing of the sort has transpired. China's multibillion-dollar investments have not made a difference to common Baloch folk. Recently, citizens of Gwadar poured out on the streets demanding basic rights such as schools, clean and safe drinking water, and protection against harassment at security checkpoints, and increasing fishing trawlers.

These protests erupting in Gwadar continued for 30 days, finally morphing into a full-fledged social movement known as "Gwadar Ko Haq Do Tehreek" (Gwadar demands rights). Beginning in November 2021, this was the largest mass protest in Balochistan's history with children, women, and adults all participating. Demonstrators came to the streets to demand basic necessities such as job, electricity, education, health-care infrastructure, and safe drinking water. In addition to these fundamental needs, the demonstrators complained that their mobility had been severely limited as a result of overwhelming number of security troops and checkpoints. A Chinese citadel would be an appropriate phrase to describe the port city currently.

Moreover, for poor making a fair livelihood in Balochistan has become almost impossible. People in Gwadar have long been dissatisfied with China's rising influence, and this dissatisfaction has lately manifested itself in shape of massive mass demonstrations.

Another outcry of the local fishermen was the rising Chinese fishing trawlers which have been granted fishing licenses in the local waters of Gwadar by the government. These fishing trawlers milk dry the waters of fish due to their large vessels which catch large amounts of fish; for such technology driven fishing, local fishermen’s techniques and boats are no match. The presence of Chinese trawlers in Gwadar has a direct impact on the local fishermen's livelihoods. Subsequently, these above-mentioned problems contribute in the weariness of local people towards CPEC's prospects.

Due to expanding Chinese presence in the port city, the tide of apprehension is rising as residents fear that they may soon be rendered a numerical minority on their own land, like Karachi, which was formerly a Baloch-dominated area. This time around, not only will Gwadar be marginalised, but the entire Baloch population would lose its majority status in their own motherland. Local deprivation is also being exacerbated by Chinese dominance in Gwadar, which is disregarding them for jobs and other facilities. Baloch hostility towards CPEC has been further heightened by the granting of Balochistan's domicile to refugees. Perhaps the Baloch have learned from history and are stridently opposed to the growing Chinese presence in Gwadar, as they do not want to lose their majority in Balochistan.

Balochistan, more than other provinces, needs a strong economic lifeline, yet it will only receive 0.5 percent of the CPEC's funding. Seventy percent of Balochistan's population lives in poverty. In Balochistan, 1.8 million children do not attend school. Around 5,000 public schools in the province only have one room. The health-care system is in desperate need of repair. In Pakistan, the maternal death rate is 278 per 100,000, whereas in Balochistan, it is 785 per 100,000. About 15% of the population is infected with hepatitis B and C. According to a 2019 study by Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, 47,000 Baloch people have gone missing.

Even as I was writing this piece, the number of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings was shoring up. Inforcibly disappeared people, whenever released from dark gallows, report inhuman torture in the cells. After months, years even decade-prolonged abduction young people are discovered with burn marks, shattered limbs, missing nails, and pierced heads. According to a 2017 assessment, there were about 817 suicide attacks between 2003 and 2017, with over 1,600 persons injured in the province. Since 2009, almost 900 people have been killed in sectarian violence. These heinous figures demonstrate that the Baloch people are disdained by the state.

We must examine Pakistan's history prior to the Baloch unrest to see how the province of Balochistan has been ignored. Balochistan is the biggest natural resource reservoir, yet it has the lowest income and is the poorest in every measure. Despite all taking-to-moon adulation about CPEC, the Balochs have persisted their indomitable opposition to it. There is a lot of indistinct chatter on dispersing the benefits of CPEC to landowners, but the truth is that it is simply a continuation of a long-standing pattern in which the people of Balochistan are denied access to the province's benefits. Despite the discovery of Sui Gas in Balochistan, the Baloch people still use wood to bake two-time bread.

According to He Xuping, chairman of the Metallurgical Construction Corporation (MCC) Resources Development (Pvt) Limited (MRDL), the Saindak Copper-Gold Project, located in Chaghi district, had a profit of $74.71 million in 2021. Saindak has helped Pakistan in balancing current account deficits in exports and sustained its industrial machinery, its true owners are forced to live in a world of cruelty and depravity. In spite of the fact that the Chaghi district's mineral resources are vigorously extracted and sold, the area's population receives equal to nothing.

Furthermore, the Reko Diq copper and gold mine in Chaghi District is one of the world's largest, with the capacity to generate 200,000 tonnes of copper and 250,000 ounces of gold each year. Locals in the Chaghi, where the Reko Diq mine and Saindak projects are located, are fed up with unemployment and are forced to sneak oil across the border with Iran, resulting in the constant loss of valuable lives. It should be highlighted that smuggling oil across the border is the only source of income for the Baloch people in Balochistan.

How can CPEC or any mega project be a fate-changer for the people of Balochistan, especially the people of Gwadar, if the real owners of Saindak and Reko Diq are subjected to daily brutality? The living experience of Saindak and Reko Diq tell us a completely different story.

To summarise, CPEC could have a changing impact on the social, political, economic, and cultural lives of Baloch people, but Islamabad has excluded them from decision-making that is further alienating them. The Baloch population believes that Sui Gas, the Reko Diq mine, and the Saindak project have been zero-sum games for them, in essence, they are meant to enrich Federal and other provinces. CPEC will undoubtedly benefit other provinces, but Balochistan, the main stakeholder, remains sidelined in the process, increasing the gap between the tiny, exploitative elite of the province and majority of the have-nots. The CPEC project is hailed as a game-changer, but for Baloch it has turned into a nightmare. What would happen to other regions of Balochistan if hundreds of villagers have gone out on the road for their basic necessities in the port city Gwadar? Pakistan and China continue to tell the Baloch that they are progressing, but the harsh reality is that the people of Gwadar are demonstrating for safe drinking water every day. Baloch population does not have the same rights as other Pakistani citizens and their growing dissatisfaction might lead to a greater turmoil in the coming days. One can only hope for better times and that good sense prevailing!

By Dilshad Baluch

From: Pakistan

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